Motorola KRZR K1 Cell Phone

I have to first say that this phone is still the prettiest phone I've ever seen. It's made of metal and glass, and feels as expensive as it looks. Even though Verizon disables many things about it, I was pleased at first. The voice signal sounds good and both screens are clear and bright. The keypad is a good size and provides sufficient feedback. The Tetris game is perfect.

After I had it a month and a half, the original battery died. It got a bad cell and swelled. I had to pay for half of the replacement, and I opted for the extended capacity one. It's been fine since. Out of 4 people I know with this phone, 3 had battery problems in the first 4 months of ownership.

After about 8 months, the camera got erratic. Sometimes, it would say "UNABLE TO OPEN CAMERA" for a few tries before it would work. A few weeks ago, it rallied and was reliable again. Now it has died entirely. Despite several hundred attempts since then, the camera just won't work. It wasn't a very good camera, anyway.

The MP3 player part works just fine, but isn't compatible with Bluetooth headphones. That's a no-brainer. That's a feature it shouldn't have shipped without. Verizon disables the ability to use your own MP3 as a ringtone. That's blatant and absurd profiteering (Verizon's fault, not Motorola's).

Bluetooth connections are iffy, and the phone doesn't like to pick them back up after losing the phone's range. LIke many features on this phone, Bluetooth seems half-baked. Caveat emptor. Don't let its good looks fool you. I'm still 9 months from my next free replacement.

I'm going to expand the review of the phone's other features a bit. My information applies only to phones through Verizon Wireless in the US, as that's where my phone came from. Verizon uses their own UI and features, so other carriers' phones will have different features.

This phone offers mobile web access, which I don't use. The screen is clear, bright, and colorful, so it should be as good on this phone as most any other. The menus are generally well-organized and easy to navigate. SMS with picture, text, and video messages are available and work fairly well. The autotype feature made contractions difficult to type until the most recent update, now they work intuitively like my Nokia had. Updates can be performed by the user at home, using the same USB cable as many cameras and other devices (cable not included). Originally, some features were very slow (deleting the inbox took forever), but everything got much faster at the last update. If the camera had not broken, I wouldn't have been doing the update, so it's probably worth it to check for firmware updates periodically.

The speakerphone works pretty well, and is easy enough to operate. The speaker itself is very clear for its size, but the phone doesn't always allow its caller to interrupt the other side of the line when on speaker.

One other frustration that I've had with the phone is that the MP3 play will sometimes begin on its own with the phone in my pocket. This is a bit startling to say the least. I'll count this as one of the less frustrating problems that I've had with this phone.

I guess the worst thing about this phone is that I wanted to like it, but got bitten too many times by small problems that just added up. The design of it is really amazing. They paid much attention to detail to make the keypad light so evenly and to give it such an appealing look. It feels nice in the hands, and has good screens to ease its use. The use of glass and metal is a good idea as the phone looks good to have ridden in my pocket for a year. Vocal performance is good. However, trouble with the Bluetooth, battery, and camera and slow menu performance just add up to unacceptable. The original RAZR was legendary, and sold so well that I thought the KRZR would be a mature product. Instead, I felt like I was using a half-baked prototype all the time. Knowing how many people I do who had battery trouble, Motorola should've replaced them free. I have to say that I strongly recommend against this phone.